Douglas H. Hendren is a retired surgeon in Harrisonburg, Virginia. After graduating from Harvard College and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine (MD 1982), he returned to Harvard for postgraduate orthopaedic surgery training, followed by a joint replacement fellowship at the Institute for Bone & Joint Disorders in Phoenix, Arizona (1989). He is a fellow emeritus of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons the American College of Surgeons.
Doug and Nancy, his wife of 50 years, raised their two children in Eureka, California, eventually returning to their East Coast roots in 1996. As managing partner of Hess Orthopaedics, Doug also personally designed and oversaw the 2003 building of the group’s 20,000 sq. ft. office and rehab facility, and the subsequent addition of an out-patient surgical facility.

After retiring from practice, Doug earned an MBA in sustainable business at Bainbridge Graduate Institute (2011), where he awakened to the many interwoven perils of our global environmental crisis.

His passion since then has been education and activism about climate disruption. Doug is a founding member of several local environmental organizations, including Renew Rocktown (2015),  Shenandoah Valley Faith & Climate (2023), and the Environmental Performance Standards Committee (EPSAC), developing Harrisonburg’s environmental action plan. A veteran of several local “solar barnraising” events, Doug also serves as a volunteer consultant to GiveSolar, a nonprofit working with Habitat for Humanity to bring affordable solar power to low-income homeowners. Having proven the model throughout Virginia, GiveSolar is now developing a national program to serve all fifty states.

Doug is also a longtime member of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and serves on the editorial team for PSR’s “Compendium,” the definitive database of scientific and medical information about the hazards of the oil and gas fracking industry. 

Doug’s other passion is composing and performing “climate music.” It started as an experiment to try to find ways around the widespread resistance to basic information about climate disruption, its causes, and its environmental, economic and health consequences. There is no shortage of material! Doug is now working on his seventh album. His music is all free, intended to educate and entertain. It is available on his website, MusicalScalpel.com, and on Spotify and various streaming platforms